True, but the distinction is surely in the motive. As much as Adam needed the ElderSupers in order to realize his own maniacal plans, I think he genuinely wanted to spur them on to realize their own idealism. Which wasn’t his own idealism, or even all that ideal when it ended up involving a nuked New York, but the point is Adam tapped into the ElderSupers’ aimlessness and isolation with the aim to help them; to make their ideals a reality. With Samuel, it’s more, “You don’t have to change the world, you can just be yourself.” He has his own self-serving motives the same way Adam did, but I think there’s a crucial difference in that Adam offered the ElderSupers a chance to make a difference with their abilities, whereas Samuel’s offering a chance to be ~*normal*~ by way of co-existing with other abilities.

No, of course, but he had a lot of boxes in Costa Verde. Not that I thought about it at the time, but I’d assume Angela has the rest of the files in her basement. Or the halls of Primatech NY is still there, just abandoned. As for the paper company we have no proof, but it seems we are meant to believe its all gone. Unless when the government took over the ‘good fight’ they took it over - but that would mean they could find out about Nathan. I also think the government involvement will go down the tubes with Nathan’s death - a good reason for it to start up again with Noah and Angela as the head, but we will see.

Think that one got past me. Where was it?

(He) won’t be fooled again (To Edgar)

Nice. I didn’t think of that, but there are similarities. The ElderSupers clearly ended up thinking for themselves and taking a stand, though, and the way Edgar sums up the carnival — “They’re lambs, they know no better” — I have a hard time believing they’ll demonstrate the same independent thinking. Perhaps part of the issue is whether the carnival members even want to take a stand. As long as life doesn’t change for them, they’re probably content to let Samuel plan whatever diabolical scheme he wants. I think that’s part of the point that Doyle’s scenes were meant to convey.

Interesting. I saw it more that his charm and his promises and understanding (as Lydia said he can make an apple think its an Orange) that he gets them, is what makes them loyal. As I assume Adam used on the Elders, just what Adam used on Peter - and he had 400 years to know human nature. They all feel alone and different, looking for someone who understands them and that connection they feel when they meet someone who is like them: Adam and Samuel use the same tricks.

The thing that got me the most about the funeral was the ‘missing man’ formation that flew overhead…the whole thing had me moist-eyed, but that outright made me cry. I was really dubious about the whole Sylathan thing at first, but they handled its ending so well and so affectingly that I no longer grudge it. Overall I’ve really liked this season a lot, and this episode was a pretty good example of why.

You can’t have ever met an Irish person in your life, the accents were atrocious (but then most of the accents in the show are, even Sendhil’s once flawless accent has started slipping in American twangs)!

Haushinka, welcome, and thanks so much for reading.

“… it made me kind of sad to realize how much my opinion of Hiro has changed so drastically from [Season One] to now.”

You and me both. Thing is, I still see flashes of inspiration every now and then. “Cautionary Tales” is still my favorite episode of the series (sacrilege, I know; “Company Man” is a close second…), and every time we get an episode like “Our Father” or “Once Upon a Time in Texas,” it raises my hopes that Hiro’s arc has taken a step forward. I’m all for comic humor — and comic-book humor — but I think it should serve some kind of a purpose, and this really didn’t, at least not one that I could see.

“The diner scene with Nathan is still one of my favorite. “

Word to that.

Renaldsrap, I’m glad you liked the Hiro scenes. I agree that we should be thankful that Hiro wasn’t bragging about what a great matchmaker he is. At least this current development removed his opportunity to do that.

With the sudden Spanish, could it be that Hiro took classes as a kid, or that he was learning it in his own time for fun (hence the book in “the Danger Room”)? Grasping at straws, here.

PandoraRose, thank you as always for the counter-review. Couple of thoughts:

“Didn’t we establish last season Noah had his own files, or stole what he could before he went on the run.”

We did, but that can’t be everything, can it? There’s a moment in 4.14 when Edgar’s speeding out of the apartment and we see three or four Primatech boxes stacked next to the door, but surely there’s more: everything in the vault below the Odessa facility, for starters, and everything that was stored in the back rooms behind the offices. If nothing else, I’d be curious to know if the paper business was still running.

“Did you also catch Noah quoting the Who.”

Think that one got past me. Where was it?

“Reminds you of a certain charming man named Adam Monroe - when the world CULT was thrown out, my first thought was of Adam and the way Angela and her friends we’re roped into the ‘cult of Adam’, so I hope that comes up as a parallel.”

Nice. I didn’t think of that, but there are similarities. The ElderSupers clearly ended up thinking for themselves and taking a stand, though, and the way Edgar sums up the carnival — “They’re lambs, they know no better” — I have a hard time believing they’ll demonstrate the same independent thinking. Perhaps part of the issue is whether the carnival members even want to take a stand. As long as life doesn’t change for them, they’re probably content to let Samuel plan whatever diabolical scheme he wants. I think that’s part of the point that Doyle’s scenes were meant to convey.

Alfredo, thank you, and I’m glad you enjoyed the nerdspeak portion of the review. Believe me, it was a blast to write.

“Samuel, I just got the point that to me he is the best thing to ever happen to the show acting and character wise.”

Pretty much with you here, although I think HRG and Angela are heavy contenders. With Samuel, though, I think it’s his intelligence and charisma that make him scary as much as his ability. It’s his capacity to charm and maneuver his way into making his plan a reality that make him so formidable, and I think that’s what separates him from Sylar. Which isn’t to bash ZQ or the way Sylar’s been portrayed, but I think it’s easier to sum up Sylar’s character arc than it is Samuel’s. The the first thing that comes to mind when we think of Sylar is “brains.” Or possibly “telekinesis.” Or “parent issues.” Or just “psychokiller.” With Samuel, I think it’s much harder to boil him down to the components of his story. I think you could argue that “family,” “love” and “treachery” would be the first things that come to mind, but I’m not sure that would even scratch the surface, which is probably because his motives are still coming to light, but it’s also a testament to the character’s complexity.

E., thank you, and GREAT catch with the reused voice-over from 2.08 (you’re not mistaken — I checked, and you’re absolutely right). There’s a great gag to be gotten out of it (actor too busy filming new pilots to record a new V.O.? V.O. Mohinder so bored with the cryptic drivel that he’s repeating himself?), but I agree that it’s an interesting throwback.

“… the sight of that single plane splitting off from the others and flying away into the sky definitely got to me.”

Wasn’t that beautifully done?

Susan, I’m stumped on the Claude/2004 detail. Only explanation I could come up with is that HRG and Claude discovered Ian in the mid-nineties, but it wasn’t until 2004 that HRG (+ the Haitian or Lauren or someone else…) actually tagged him. What the heck, though — any mention of Claude is fine by me.

Great point about what Samuel knows when it comes to Nathan. I would have thought there’d be something useful in the Primatech files, but then if HRG didn’t know about Claire’s bio-dad when he tried to capture Nathan in 1.05, perhaps parts of the Petrelli files have been edited? I think it’s safe to say he knows that Nathan and Peter are brothers, though, yes.

Lydia: “You have to help us. You have to find someone that can stop him.”

Peter? Maybe? Please?

I think so too. That, or a team effort from Peter and Sylar, which seems to be where the show is going.

Re: the Peter/HRG hostility: I’m still not sure. That look from Peter at the start of 4.14 seems very ambiguous to me. The way the chronology works out, that scene probably took place only a few hours after the end of 4.12, when Peter returned to his apartment to cry on Angela’s shoulder. I think, as with Claire at the funeral, the look from Peter when he sees HRG isn’t necessarily directed at anyone or anything in particular. He’s distraught and exhausted and he’s p**sed off with everyone and everything. But there’s also the fact that Peter seems to have accepted Angela’s motive for creating Sylathan (judging from the fact that there wasn’t any strong reaction from him after her confession in 4.11). It could be that his anger at the deception is still coming, but if Peter’s willing to see Angela’s perspective, my guess would be that he’s willing to see HRG’s as well.

LeeAnna — so the Nathan/Sylathan drama finally got to you!

Great point about the impact the deception has had on Peter. It got me thinking about how early on in the show the bond between Peter and Nathan was established, and how that might be bookended when the show draws to a close. If the first scene in 1.01 with Peter (besides the image of him leaping off the roof) was him meeting his brother, and if Peter really is the central character of the show (which I think he is), I wonder if he’ll also end up at the center of the show’s final scene. Odds are it’ll be a Nathan-less scene, so I’ll be curious to see whether it will involve other members of Peter’s family (to emphasize how their experiences have brought them closer), or whether it will show Peter alone (to reinforce how their experiences have damaged them).

“As for Claire, I don’t know if I find her anymore enjoyable, but she didn’t seem as annoying as I find her most of the time.”

I’m amazed I’m saying this, but I’ve been very impressed by the way she’s been written and played this season. I thought these two episodes in particular portrayed her with admirable poise and maturity.

With the Emma/siren development, it’s Samuel’s familiarity with it that struck me as unexplained. I can buy the development itself, but I’m not sure how Samuel would understand Emma’s ability unless he’d encountered it before. Doesn’t seem all that implausible, just something that perhaps requires a little more speculation.

Hrefna, thank you. I agree, the whole brain-gone-haywire aspect of Hiro’s storyline is very interesting. I think I could have taken it more seriously if the scenes had played out more seriously. That point was buried somewhere in the nerdspeak in the review; that if the focus had been on the tumor, on Ando losing his friend, on Kimiko’s distress from watching her last relative slowly slipping away (and what a great parallel that could have been to Peter losing Sylathan…), it could have been *so* awesome. But perhaps someone decided that it would make the episode too ~*dark*~ or ~*depressing*~, so instead we got Star Trek jokes.

“Heck, maybe I was just in a good mood that Heroes was finally back?!”

See, I was too. Wasn’t enough for me…

“Are people really surprised that live viewer-ship is going down among those with some familiarity with the internet?”

It seems Tim Kring isn’t. ‘Bout time those saps and dips**ts caught up with the 21st century.

B., thank you, and Happy New Year to you too. Word to the point you make about Future-Hiro. For me, it’s not so much about seeing him with the sword and the leather (as you say), but more about seeing some kind of change — any kind of change — that affects him enough to kill his enthusiasm. I saw the potential for that in 2.09, and in 2.11 and 3.12, but it seems like every time Hiro’s about to grow as a character, the show whips him back to the way he started — only now minus the novel charm.

The way that keeps happening, though, I think it’s kind of cool to compare the way Hiro’s not becoming his future self to the way Peter and Claire aren’t. I’m actually really glad that Claire isn’t becoming the character we saw in 3.01 or 3.04 — I like where the show’s taking her now much more than where they seemed to be taking her there.

KellyH, welcome back! I agree, the Leno situation’s probably in this show’s best interest. If the rest of NBC’s line-up is in tatters, Heroes might suddenly not look like such a bad investment. Here’s hoping.

This is the first I’ve heard of an additional three episodes. I was under the impression that production shut down this week and that the season wrap party was this weekend. Do you have any links to the news?

I’m sure the writers face the challenge of stretching out a storyline across many episodes, but that is their job. They did it phenomenally in Season 1, then it all went downhill from there. Season 1 was so good that we all got high expectations I guess, and the writer’s strike didn’t help. But if they’re getting paid to do this they need to stop being so lazy (with inconsistencies, etc) and start being more creative and speed things up, keep us interested (those of us still watching).

I don’t know why I always end up sounding like a Heroes hater… LOL

I wonder how much of a challenge it is for TPTBs to adapt their writing to the length of the volume. HeroesWiki recently did an interview with the folks who produced the webisodes (http://heroeswiki.com/Interview:Slow_Burn), and one of the points the writers make is how difficult it was to compress their story into 90-second segments. I’d be curious to hear whether TPTBs faced the opposite challenge on the main show, going from 12-to-13-episode volumes and back to the 20-ish-episode monsters.

Did anyone else get a “volume opener” vibe from these two episodes? Renaldsrap describes this one as “putting the pieces in place,” and I agree with that. There’s the ongoing carnival storyline, but it felt like a lot of new material was putting new story arcs into motion: Emma’s ability, Samuel’s preoccupation with Vanessa, Peter’s reaction to Nathan’s death, Sylar’s tattoo of Claire… To me, in several ways, this felt like the start of a new volume.